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Friday 25 May 2012

Doctor Who - 5.11: "The Lodger" Review


The Doctor becomes a lodger to find why people go up the stairs of a house and don't return, whilst also giving a couple a helpful nudge towards true love.

The Doctor (Matt Smith) lands on the ground and the TARDIS explodes and vanishes and he can only shout to Amy (Karen Gillan) who is left on board.   A voice from a house attracts passers-by, asking for help and the door at the top of the stairs opens to let the person in.   Sophie (Daisy Haggard) notices stains on the ceiling of Craig's (James Cordon) room downstairs.   Sounds can be heard from upstairs.   Craig has placed an ad for the spare room.   Sophie asks if he's found her a man or she might just have to settle for Craig.   That was an apparent hint.  Notice the Vincent Van Gogh card on the fridge advertizing the exhibition at the Museum D'Orsay.  

The Doctor arrives, he's the new lodger, "this is going to be easier than I expected."  Craig says "I love you" whilst opening the door to him.   He describes himself as an "ancient amateur and an absolute dream" and Craig is lucky the Doctor just happened by.  He likes sweets and he's called the Doctor and he calls himself Doctor too, but he doesn't know why.   He's got one of those faces where people blurt out their plans to him.   He hands Craig a bag full of money.  The stain has gotten bigger and spread.   The Doctor doesn't identify it as mould or mildew.   He has references including from the Archbishop.   The Doctor attempts to make Craig an omelette.

Amy attempts to land the TARDIS.   The Doctor cooked in Paris in the eighteenth century, no the twentieth and has been told he's weird.   He comments Craig is beginning to look like the sofa.   The Doctor can cook, but in 5.8 The Hungry Earth, (sure there's a pun there) he said he couldn't even make a meringue.   Craig tells the Doctor whenever he wants to bring over a girl, or a boy, then Craig will leave him alone.  The Doctor warns against touching the rot, as he refers to it.   The Doctor realizes a materialization loop means the TARDIS can't land, whatever's in the flat is preventing the landing.   The room upstairs claims another victim.

Sophie mentions the Doctor's bow tie, as is mandatory now every episode, ha.   He can't use the Sonic or any technology.   He scrambles the signal when talking to Amy so anyone who listens will hear gobbledygook, which Craig does.   Amy: "Bow ties, get rid."  Doctor: "Bow ties are cool."  There's time distortion and the zig-zag plotter will keep the TARDIS steady.   The Doctor brings back a trolley load of stuff, looking like junk, to build a gadget and then sings in the shower.   The Doctor's starkers and then in his towel and Amy's not around to have a good look again, ha.   But Sophie sees him in the towel.   Craig refers to Sophie as his date but says he didn't.   He's playing football and the Doctor must make up the numbers.   Doing blokey things is our Doctor, which is unusual for him cos they're very human.   The Doctor mentions Sophie has two sets of keys to someone else's house, she likes it here too.   Sophie says Craig didn't mention the Doctor was gorgeous.

The Doctor loses his bow tie now and wears shorts to show off his footy skills.  A girl's voice is heard on the intercom now asking for help.   Well, whilst the Doctor is out indulging in  human pursuits, another person falls victim.   He could have refused to play football with more important matters at hand; he was there about the upstairs after all.   He then says, there's  to be no violence when he's around, "I'm the Doctor - the oncoming storm."  mentioned by the Daleks more recently in 5.3 Victory of the Daleks.    He gets serious when violence is mentioned.   Time begins to repeat.   Amy tells him the scanner reads '9'.   He thought the TARDIS had gone into the vortex with her, it reads '5' now.

Sophie comes round again and the Doctor interrupts them, asking where the switch is for an ordinary screwdriver.   He takes a sip of wine and then spits it back into the glass.    Everyone's got dreams he says, but only  few will achieve them.  "So why pretend."  His words of wisdom.   Sophie can do anything she wants and has to work out what's keeping her here.   The Doctor uses his gadget to find there aren't any traces of abnormal technology from upstairs.   He can't go upstairs without finding out what's there first and get himself killed.   Well the others were killed.   Craig touches the rot and the Doctor makes him breakfast.  He needs to reverse the energy decay in Craig.   He then takes Craig's place at work where he's also a big hit.   And also gets to eat Custard Creams, his favourite biscuits.   Thought they were Jammy Dodgers.  Sophie thinks about volunteering with an animal charity.

Craig noses around in the Doctor's room and the cat's been upstairs.  The Doctor talks with the cat and Craig wants him to leave.  The Doctor calls his gadget art and he must stay, headbutting Craig to reveal various versions of Doctors and the TARDIS, time travel is possible.   Amy hasn't written the ad yet and it must be in red ink.   The girl calls out to Sophie for help and she calls her "my love" (River's phrase.) There's a time machine upstairs and people are being used to launch it.   Time repeats, Sophie is dying there.   Amy has plans of the building and there's no second storey.   The time engine is the flat and the Doctor says someone's attempting to build the TARDIS.   The perception filter is in use again.   The Doctor gets upstairs and calls himself, "Captain Troy Handsome of International Rescue."

The man is the hologram of the crashed ship and he's slaughtering people until the correct pilot is found which turns out to be the Doctor.   The Doctor posits the entire solar system will blow if his hand touches the panel.   He asks why he wants Sophie? The machine wants to escape and leave here like she does.   Craig shouts "Geronimo" and he must think of everything that's keeping him here, he loves Sophie and so does she and they kiss.   The ship's imploding and then vanishes.   The Doctor explains there never was a top floor.   The rot's gone.   Craig lets the Doctor keep the keys.   'The Doctor rocks' can be seen on the fridge and behind the fridge the Crack appears.   Amy must leave the ad for him in the shop in red ink and she finds the ring box.

An episode clearly about the Doctor trying his hand at being human, without using his Sonic but still manages to build a gadget to help him out, using only things available on earth; not to mention playing football too, even though people were still dying upstairs.   Not much for Amy to do, but to leave the note and that will become clear later.   This episode humanizes the Doctor and he repeats the line the Daleks did about him being the "oncoming storm" which he is in the context of the final two episodes of this season.

The Doctor refers to himself as Troy Handsome, an allusion to Troy Tempest from Stingray  and International Rescue  of course from Thunderbirds.   He also wears the number 11 on his footy jersey, alluding to the eleventh Doctor and the eleventh episode.   In the shower, the Doctor can be heard to sing, 'La donna e mobile.'

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